I understand that Sybase does not endorse any 3rd party online backup tool. However, I just want to know whether you use any 3rd party tools for online backup and if possible give me some recommendation.

It is always recommended to backup a running, online database by using the provided backup tools with SQL Anywhere (e.g the 'dbbackup' utility, or 'BACKUP DATABASE' SQL statement, or progammatically through the DBTools API/'DBBackup()'). For more information on designing a backup solution that fits your specific needs, see our whitepaper.

It is generally not recommended to use third-party tools to create backups. The general issue with third-party online backup tools is that they do not understand that an active SQL Anywhere database is comprised of multiple files, in various 'states' that need to be synchronized during a backup. Our built-in tools understand the status of all of these files and can ensure that everything is properly CHECKPOINTed on to disk, before backing the database file up.

If you truly wish to use a third-party backup tool, it is best to shut down the database server first to ensure the database and transaction log are flushed out to disk, to then back up the database as a regular 'file'.

If you're working with VMWare or another OS vitualization utility and are instead taking OS snapshots as a form of 'backup', the above discussion may or may not apply. You should thoroughly test the behaviour of your backups in this environment and ensure that 'restores' are successful.

As most everyone has already recommended, trying to backup the physical database files with a 3rd party util while running is somewhat likely to create an inconsistent state where your backup will be more likely to run into issues than your live database.

If you are asking about 3rd party utils strictly so you can have an OFF-site backup, what you may wish to do is:

Create a local store for backups

Backup the running database using our backup utility (or statement/api) to the local store

Backup the local store to a remote file backup

Just be sure that (2) and (3) don't run concurrently. That could also put the database into an inconsistent state.

I wonder why you think about a 3rd party tool. I can't imagine any other company being able to create a consistent image of a running db. I'd recommend upgrading to a more recent version of SQL Anywhere. That would give you more control over the backup process while reducing the impact on connected users. See
BACKUP-Statement SA12.

That tool would be SQL Anywhere. The comand line tool DBBACKUP or the SQL command BACKUP DATABASE can be use to create a live backup. You might also use the DbTools API fur that purpose. Look here
for Details: Live Backup